When Bazaar met Rose Uniacke

Read our interview with the 2015 PAD London prize winner

This year Rose Uniacke has been awarded the prize for Best Stand, one of the categories in the prestigious Moët Hennessy-PAD London competition. Bazaar met Uniacke to talk about her work and her debut into the Frieze foray (this year, for the first time, she will be exhibiting her wares at PAD London). Read the full interview with the interior designer, published in the November 2015 issue, below.

Over the past 18 years, Rose Uniacke has become celebrated as an interior designer. From redecorating Jo Malone London’s headquarters in a Georgian Marylebone mansion to working on the Beckhams’ house in Holland Park, her style has become synonymous with elegance and beauty. Her look is modern – she favours uncluttered rooms and neutral tones that maximise natural light – yet is still unmistakably English. Having chosen a large Victorian property in Pimlico for her own home, Uniacke is particularly expert at working with period buildings. She enhances architectural details and ensures that each room has something to catch the eye, be it a structural detail or a piece of furniture. "I like space to be functional," says Uniacke. "Every room has a purpose, so that’s always a factor when you develop where the heart of a room is."

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Alongside her own line of furniture, Uniacke sources antiques from across the centuries – she deals in pieces from the past 400 years. As the daughter of the antiques dealer Hilary Batstone, Uniacke has inherited an under standing of which pieces will suit the atmosphere of a home. "My mother always had lovely things – I grew up in very welcoming and comfortable houses," says Uniacke. After university, she worked as a restorer of furniture paintwork and lacquer, and also did some gilding. "It was a useful start to my career and I’ve been buying and restoring, and exploring the furniture market ever since," she says.

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With her keen interest in 20th-century furniture, it’s not surprising that Uniacke has been a regular visitor to the annual art and antiques fair PAD London, and has previously sat on the fair’s committee. This will be her first year as an exhibitor. "We sell a lot of Scandinavian furniture from the first half of the 20th century, so I think PAD will be a good fit for us," she says.

Visitors to the Rose Uniacke stand can see a selection of pieces by Axel Einar Hjorth, a Swedish designer whose modern pieces were influenced by the French art deco movement. With their combination of simple lines, elegant forms and practicality, they’re perfect ambassadors for Rose Uniacke’s elegant ethos.

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